Improvement in blasting



UNITED STATES PATENT Ornron.

.ORLANDOB. HARDY, or AKRON, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT m BLASTING-POWDER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 220,534, datedOctober 14, 1879; application filed June 6, 1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ORLANDO B. HARDY, of

Akron, in the county of .Summit and State of Ohio, have invented certain new. and .useful Improvements in Blasting-Powder; and I do hereby declare'the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use it.

, My invention relates to blasting-powder, and consists of the compound hereinafter-described and claimed.

My powder has the peculiarity of not ignitin g by percussion, and of being perfectly safe To make my powder, take crude nitrate ofsoda, sulphur, charcoal, common salt, sugar, and paratfine, or their equivalents,- and mix them as follows: In making one hundred and thirty-three pounds of my powder, take of crude nitrate of soda, say, seventy-five pounds inweight, of sulphur twenty pounds, of charcoal vtwenty pounds, of commonsalt ten pounds, of sugar five pounds, and of parafiine three pounds. Of. course, these proportions maybe more or less varied to suit special requirements; buta powder made according to the above recipe will perform a useful purv pose.

To compound the above ingredients in ma ing my power, take the crude nitrate of soda,

sugar, and salt and dissolve them together in water, boiling this solution to the consistency, say, of thick mush, the. paraiiine being added thereto; then remove from the fire and add the charcoal and sulphur, which should have been previously pulverized. and mixed together. By this addition the mass is sum- It produces less smoke than any;

cieiitly-dried for kerneling. 'Now, in this" state fit for kerneling, the powder may either be granulated by being passed through suitable screens sized fort-he grade of powder to be produced, or the powder may be, pressed or molded intocylinders, sticks, or cartridges of uitable size, shape, and weight for the varying requirements of mining, quarryi ,and-

blasting.

When put up into sticks or cylinders, as

just above vspecified, the granulating or kerneling process is, of course, omitted, and the powder is in the condition of a solid lump or.

mass, sufficiently solid and tenacious of itself to withstand ordinary handling, thereby not requiring a shell or any sustaining wrapper.

An important advantege',-obtained by my. powder is that it may be exploded by means of the common fuse, not requiring the use of caps, primers, or the like, as is frequently the case in other powders.

As hefore'suggested, a peculiar property of my powder is the fact that its dynamic eii'ect" is only produced when it is burnedin a confined and substantially air-tight cavity, whereas it burns slowly, safely, and without any ex.- plosiven'ess whatever in the open air. My object in using salt is to produce this non-explosibility in the open air; and sugar or other f suitable binder is employed to increase the solidity of the finished product, whether it is used in granulated or stick form.

This powder does not undergo any decomposition duringan indefinite period of storage,

and is thereby good for any length of time.

What I claim is-- A blasting-powder composed of nitrate of soda, sugar, salt, charcoal, sulphur, and par afline, in the parts and proportions substantially asset forth. 4 p

In testimony whereof have signedmy name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

- ORLANDO B. HARDY. Witnesses:-

L. L. LEGGETT,

Juo. CBOWELL, Jr. 

